COTA to Purchase Six Articulated Buses

The proverbial no vacancy signs hanging on local buses may soon be a thing of the past. Columbus City Council gave the go ahead to the Central Ohio Transit Authority to try out ultra -long buses on at least one of the most congested city bus lines.

The ultra long buses are called articulated buses. They look like two buses connected by what resembles the bellows of an accordion.

Currently, Cleveland is the only city in Ohio that uses them. But COTA wants to give them a try. COTA plans to purchase six articulated buses.

Curtis Stitt is COTA’s legal council.

“We are leaving people standing at bus stops when we have full loads in the peak and during the day because we simply can’t get people on the buses,” Stitt said.

Stitt said COTA will try out the buses first on line one – one of the busiest in the city. It serves passengers on Cleveland and Livingston Avenues where the line’s crowded buses often are forced to pass by riders. Stitt said other routes could see the new buses.

The 60-foot articulated bus holds about 57 people. That’s about 50 percent more riders than current COTA buses. And the new buses will be hybrid-electrics rather than diesel fueled.

FYI, articulated buses hold more than 57 people as the article claims. Most “artics” have about 65 seats, so I assume the 57 figure refers to seated passengers. They will likely hold closer to 110 or 120 when maxed out with standees.

So where do you want to see these used? I assume the #2 is the obvious answer.

Rate this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

15 Responses

I haven’t seen anything official come out of COTA as far as how many and when and where these buses will be used. I figured the City Council legislation is to get them prepared, but wasn’t sure how fast we’ll see implementation.

From one of the news stories I believe they will keep the buses on the main routes (I know the #1 was mentioned) and on main roads.

I posted this on CU, but I think a great solution would be to take the main routes and divide them to help efficiency on local stops. So a #1-A Polaris to Downtown and #1-B Downtown to Reynoldsberg with all current stops in place. Then use these articulated buses as BRT Between the two end points, running the length of the current route. Limited stops to keep them at speed and reduce travel time.

Andrew,
I like the concept, or at least something similar in concept. Here’s some analysis of what that service might be like:

The existing #1 route for all of Cleveland Avenue and Livingston Avenue is 23.3 miles long, 46.6 if you look at it as a two-way loop. The schedule shows that the existing #37 express bus can cover about 9.5 miles from downtown to SR-161 in 37 minutes in the PM. That’s 15.4 MPH. Assuming an express with the articulated buses would stop at a similar frequency and maintain a similar average speed, then it would take about three hours to make the full loop from Polaris to Reynoldsburg and back again. Let’s round up to 3.25 hours including short breaks at each end and possibly in downtown. So six buses would cut the headway down to 32.5 minutes, which isn’t too bad.

I think the time is fast coming for COTA to completely redo the bus system/service. Light rail is great and will be done at some point here. Expecting a bus to cover 40 miles round trip, with the frequency of stops we have, is stupidity at it’s finest.

Andrew,
The addition of a light rail line would be a great excuse to re-do the bus system, wouldn’t it?

As for the existing system, I would imagine that longer routes make travel times increasingly unpredictable, and therefore the more often buses will get off-schedule. So shorter routes as you suggested could potentially help with that, assuming it’s a problem. I really can’t say since I don’t have any data.

I thought of another way that these articulated buses could be used. Rather than run them end-to-end, Polaris to Reynoldsburg, why not treat them like a streetcar? Add the new buses to the middle of routes, making relatively frequent stops in the city’s densest, highest-ridership areas. Then have the local buses make fewer stops (every half mile or maybe just at transfer points) in the “articulated zones.”

This would crate more frequent service where it’s really needed, with better headways than the every half-hour scenario I calculated out in my previous comment. Meanwhile, the standard 40′ buses would continue to serve the ends of the routes, where there are hopefully fewer trips that are standing room only, but they would create a faster, more time-competitive service for the ends of the routes because they wouldn’t stop so much in the core.

From a personal experience, the number 7 schedule got really screwed up when they did service changes in January. They extended the route to Riverside, IIRC.

I have been back at my parents for a few weeks, so I don’t know if this has been corrected. There were numerous times that a bus was scheduled to arrive and failed to show. The next bus would arrive on time at the next posted scheduled time.

Light rail would definitely be the time to consider a massive redo that would prioritize efficiency and reliability. And you know if public support was there, I really wouldn’t mind a bus only system for the next few decades. Provided we were willing to give buses priority (signal priority, bus lanes in their various forms). Pseudo-Streetcar on wheels I could get behind. Really anything that would move our transit to the 21st century.

Admittedly I’ve never been on the #1 but I honestly wonder if it’s busier than the #2. I take the #2 everyday from my apartment in Clintonville to campus, and I usually get one of the last seats, and all others to board in Southern Clintonville and Old North Columbus either have to stand or, in some cases, miss the bus when it’s full.

My inclination is that the city wants to use the new buses on the #1 route because it is probably used mostly by people who actually pay in full to use the bus! Nearly all riders on the #2 in the morning up by me flash their Buck IDs, and get unlimited rides for the quarter for $9. By having an accordian bus that is full of people paying full fare or monthly rates is more cost effective by them. But unfortunately for us OSU riders, it still means full buses. I guess you get what you pay for :(.

[…] Capital University in Bexley as well. New stations, pre-payment fare cards, signal priority, and articulated buses would make a nice project. In New Orleans, LaHood Unveils $280M in Streetcar and Bus Grants by […]

The #1 is quite busy. I sometimes ride it from Downtown to CSCC which takes me about 3/4th of the way home, and I’ll walk 10 minutes the rest of the way if a more convenient bus isn’t coming sooner for me. I rarely use that option though because the #1 is always so packed. I think the Cleveland Ave corridor has a fairly dense population of folks who utilize the bus as their main transportation option, and it’s a direct link both to Downtown as well as up to Morse Road.

I used the #1 extensively last year when I didn’t have the car. Midday was never much of an issue. Afternoon or morning peak hours were always a pain with the crowding, especially if you had one pass with “Next Bus Please”.

And not to tell OSU how to spend their money or anything, I’m surprised there is not being more done (given the research emphasis) to really partner with COTA, OSU and the city to make Columbus a kind of living lab for transit, mobility and urban planning research.